NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Key facts and figures about hunger in the United States.
— 36.2 million Americans — that’s 11.1 percent of American households — suffer from food insecurity; meaning their access to enough food is limited by a lack of money and other resources.
— 17.5 percent of all rural households with children are food insecure (low food security and very low food security), an estimated over 1 million children.
— 30.2 percent of households with children, headed by single women are food insecure.
— Emergency food assistance plays a vital role in the lives of low-income families. In 2002, over half of the nonelderly families that accessed a food pantry at least once during the year had children under the age of 18.
— In 2007, 3.9 million of all U.S. households (3.4 percent) accessed emergency food from a food pantry one or more times.
— In 2008, Southern Baptist hunger ministries fed more than 5 million meals to the hungry in North America.
— Missionaries and volunteers shared the Gospel more than 785,000 times because of the opportunities provided through domestic hunger ministries.
— More than 36,000 professions of faith and 5,763 baptisms were reported in 2008 as a result of these hunger ministries.
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Sources: www.namb.net, www.feedingamerica.org, Urban Institute, Many Families Turn to Food Pantries for Help, November 2003; Household Food Security in the United States, 2007.
